A short drive thru Warkworth and out to the coast at Snells Beach. This is a great beach with many flash houses overlooking it. Most seem to be holiday houses. We are allowed to stay right on the water front.

Quite surprising really. We off-loaded the bikes and set out for a ride to Sand Spit where the ferry to Kawarau Island leaves from. Going up a hill just out of Snells Beach Val ran out of steam and I realized she

was pushing a flat tyre. We walked back 2kms to the garage to discover the nearest repair would be back

at Warkworth. We settled for a walk along the beach instead. We stopped off at Warkworth the next day and found a friendly bike repair man who fixed the problem. Warkworth is a pretty town set on a river. We followed the coast up the Twin Coast Discovery road passed Mangawhai Heads and Waipu Cove to our next stop at a DOC camp at Uretiti Beach. This is a huge camp behind the sand hills of the white sands of

Uretiti Beach. Val caught up on some washing which dried in a cool southerly wind. The next day we headed off on our bikes for a 27km return ride inland to the Waipu Caves along a undulating (Val would say

hilly) road. Most of the ride was thru farm land with the last bit thru native bush. The caves were great but unfortunately I forgot a torch so our exploring was a bit limited. Back at the camp, after a late lunch we set off along the beach to Ruakaka (about 10 kms return). We discovered that Uretiti Beach is nudist friendly. Not a pleasant sight!! After 2 nights at the DOC camp we are now in Whangarei. It has been another mixed weather day with sun and a couple of southerly squalls. The harbour basin is a nice area. We had a huge shop and are now in a NZMCA area at Manganese Point on the road to the Whangarei heads overlooking the harbour and Marsden Point. There are about 6 campers in. We stood in the sun looking at the view talking to some of them including a couple from Darfield. We followed SH1 north and then turned towards the coast for a 30 km drive along a windy road to Whananaki at the north end of the Tutakaka Coast. We are now in a DOC camp at Otamure. Our site overlooks the most magnificent beach and coastline. The area is a bit like the Able Tasman but with grey sand and much more rugged features. We are looking north thru many islands and headlands to Cape Brett. The weather is now beautiful and we will stay here all Queens Birthday weekend. We have had three great days here walking the beaches, biking to the next bay, and relaxing. The camp is quite empty but with enough people here to make it interesting. Fishing seems to be the main pastime here at this time of the year. I, unfortunately, have no bait!! Might not be a bad thing as everyone is very good at casting etc with great gear. No Warehouse rods here!! Diving is also popular. We have seen some people swimming but the water is pretty cold. The boats are launched from the beach which makes interesting viewing. A guy came back this morning with about 8 huge snapper all caught from a tiny kayak. We will spend another night here tonight. The clouds have come in but it is still warm. We drove out to Whananaki and set off on the coastal walk first crossing the LONGEST FOOT BRIDGE in the

southern hemisphere. 700m long across the Whananaki Estuary. The track followed the coast before heading inland to bypass some flash baches. We ended up on a promontory, with a spectacular 270 degrees view, where there was a memorial to the ‘Capitaine Bouganville’, a French freighter which caught on fire in 1975 (16 killed). After a picnic lunch we walked along the beaches (low tide) back to the bridge and the camper. On return to the camp we went back to our same spot overlooking the beach. Overnight the wind got up and it is now raining. We have driven north to Paihia and are now in a camp looking at the Haruru Falls. We have paid for power the first time this holiday and also have free internet. It has rained all day and we have just sat tight. The forecast is not great but hopefully we can look around Paihia, Waitangi, and Russell in the next few days.